message by rick warren

“For lack of discipline they will die, led astray by their own great folly.” (Proverbs 5:23 NIV)

How have you been doing with your quiet time? If you’re like most people, you struggle with making time for a quiet time. That’s normal. As soon as you start trying to build the habit of a quiet time into your life, you’ll encounter all kinds of roadblocks. Satan will fight you to keep you from meeting with the Lord daily. In fact, there are four very common roadblocks to having a consistent quiet time. Over the next few devotionals, I’ll share with you a different roadblock each day and a few ways you can overcome the roadblock.

By far, the most common roadblock that Satan puts in our way is the problem of discipline. I call this the battle of the blankets! To win the battle of the blankets, you have to get out of bed in the morning even though you’re tired. That’s not easy! The devil will exaggerate how tired you are. This lack of discipline can have disastrous effects. The Bible says in Proverbs, “For lack of discipline they will die, led astray by their own great folly” (Proverbs 5:23 NIV). To overcome the battle of the blankets:

Get up immediately!The battle is won or lost in the first few minutes.

Be aware of time robbers. For you, these could be surfing the Web or watching TV — whatever you’re doing instead of your quiet time.

Go to bed with Scripture on your mind. Read a piece of Scripture you read in the morning so that you go to bed and wake up with God’s Word on your mind.

You can do this! Tomorrow morning you can win the battle of the blankets!

TALK ABOUT IT

Consider ways to keep Scripture on your mind, like writing verses on an index card and taping it to your bathroom mirror.